Catscratch Review/Transcript
Human Kimberly: 'And this is Kaitlin, Kaitlyn, and Charlotte! ''(The camera pans up to reveal how huge Charlotte is) 'Waffle: '*gasps* 'Gordon: '*whispering* Can you imagine the size of her unicorn? (Long intro) I uh...I have no idea what I just watched...but I know that it was '''amazing. I remember watching this show a couple of times when I was a kid, but I did not remember it being this ''good and ''this ''funny. And uh, this show is...really ''good and it's...really'' funny. But it is the kinda funny that you gotta be...prepared for. Catscratch ''takes us back to the ''early ''Nicktoons, like ''Ren & Stimpy ''and ''Rocko's Modern Life. Oh, this show has a plot, alright. But reality is more or less a suggestion in Catscratch. It seems like a relatively normal premise for a cartoon. It follows three cats: Mr. Blik, voiced by Dojo from Xiaolin Showdown, Waffle, voiced by Pleakley ''from ''Lilo & Stitch, and Gordon, voiced by Scotland. I know that I keep bringing this up over and over again, but this is something that ''does ''legitimately bother me: when voice actors use the same voice for every single thing. It-it's called voice ''acting, people. Actors play people who are different than themselves. Consider trying it once in a while. In Catscratch, these three cats' owner died and gave them an entire estate. It's more or less the sequel to The Aristocats...but you know, worth watching. The premise is nothing unusual in terms of a cartoon, where we've had a family of spies or, a pet dog going to school, but the stories that Catscratch ''tells with its premise...uh, they are something! In one episode, Gordon's human friend Kimberly, and yes you have to call her "human friend Kimberly," failed a science project about the core of the Earth, stating that it was filled with unicorns and rainbows. Because Gordon didn't wanna tell her the truth, he takes the project and digs to the center of the Earth, and throws the project into the center of the Earth. This ends up changing the entire world into something out of ''The Care Bears, complete with toasters that sing about ham. But they need to stop this because rainbows are destroying everything and giant stuffed animals are raining down from the sky. So, the cats use their butler, who has turned into a gingerbread man to capture some unicorns. Gordon fashions the unicorns into a drill, and uses that drill to dig a pumpkin into the center of the Earth. This is one '''episode of the show, and let me tell you, each and every single one of them, I've seen, are up to ''this ''level of insanity. And I could '''not get enough of it! I can't, watch every single episode of a show doing this marathon, but, this is one of those shows that I know I'm going to have to return to to watch all of the episodes. So far in this marathon, Catscratch ''has been one of the biggest and best surprises. If you like ''Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy, it's safe to say that you'll like this show. It's definitely not the exact same premise, but it is similar. We have the streetwise leader, that's Mr. Blik, we have the lovable idiot, being Waffles, and then there's Gordon, the ethical center. It's a dynamic that's been done before, but it really works here. I don't know if I'd go as far to say that I like this show better than ''Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy, but it is a great contender. And I can definitely see someone liking this show a lot more than that one. This show is a lot "nicer" for lack of a better word. Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy ''is about the Eds trying to con kids out of their money and it usually ends with everyone beating each other up. In ''Catscratch for starters, the characters already have cash and they can do anything, and they do do just about anything. Like The X's, this show has 20 episodes to its name, but I couldn't find them all. But the premises of them invite so ''much imagination, and I am certainly on the hunt. The very first episode of the show is about them going to the moon. I mean, where do you go from there? Oh I know, have Gordon traumatized by a duck that beat him up as a kid. And as far as "cute ducks turning out to be evil," ''Catscratch ''did a better take than ''Courage ''did, I-I am sorry to say. Every episode that I watched kept me laughing all the way through. It may have been the bizarre premises, or the strange plots, the endearing characters, or just the fast-paced humor. Or a combination of all of them. And yeah, this show is fast, you get new joke after new joke. It's ''never plotting and something new is always happening. The kind of energy in this show is ''astounding. I would have to say that so far, this is the most underrated Nicktoon of them all. I don't see myself getting another surprise like this for the remainder of the series. Like, this is, one of the few shows that I would legitimately like to see it come back in the modern day with new episodes. There are'' a couple of problems, though. Like I said before, my number one problem is the voice acting. It's not bad, it's just the same problem over and over again. I cannot hear ''anything but Dojo when I hear Mr. Blik. I know that this is a common thing in animation and I'm in the minority complaining about it, but once upon a time, Hanna-Barbera ripping off Scooby-Doo ''was a common thing in animation. When you watch as many cartoons as I do, it gets to be a bigger and bigger problem, and it takes you out of the experience more often than not. Like I said, a part of voice acting...is acting. Acting means being someone...different than who you are. I do think it should be a requirement in voice actors to actually be good at impressions. If you haven't seen ''Xiaolin Showdown ''or ''Lilo & Stitch, well, first of all, watch Lilo & Stitch ''and maybe consider ''Xiaolin Showdown ''after you've seen ''Avatar. But, if you haven't, this might not be much of a problem to you. What is a problem is how hard this show is to obtain. It has never been released. No digital distribution, no DVDs, uh, with the exception of a compilation DVD. For ''The X's, I-I can kind of understand that, I don't like it, but I understand that. For a show as good as Catscratch, that is a crime. As well as only giving it 20 episodes. Seriously, the ''comic book that Catscratch ''was based on is much easier to obtain. Oh yeah, not many people know this, but ''Catscratch ''was based on a comic book, called ''Gear. I haven't read it, but uh....it-it is interesting. It revolves around an animal war between dogs and cats, and four cat brothers have been tasked to get a giant robot from their enemies. It's filled with swearing, gore, harsh language, and even religious allegories! The show that it's based on, is about cats getting inheritance from their rich owner going on crazy adventures. I do not know how you get from point A to B here, but honestly, I would not have it any other way. Because, that's your basic plot of a Catscratch ''episodes. Episodes start by having a character cheat at a video game, and then by the end they're tasked with saving an alien planet from total annihilation. I-it's like we got from the comic book to the show via an episode of ''Catscratch. This might be legitimately the funniest Nicktoon of them all, and I don't think that I can give it any higher praise. And of course, it got canned early which is, very unfortunate. This show is great, it probably just...came out at the wrong time unfortunately. This was the era where..."if your show didn't pull those Spongebob ''numbers, well, your time slot goes to ''Spongebob, goodbye, thanks for playing." This obviously wasn't the first show that Nickelodeon mistreated, but I think this one hurts a lot more than most others. I mean, they gave ChalkZone ''a chance and...''ChalkZone ''kinda blew it. And with ''My Life as a Teenage Robot, you could still easily find the episodes today. Unfortunately, this...wouldn't be the last time that Nickelodeon screwed over a show. We're going to see a lot of them coming up...as we enter the dark ages. I'm going to spoil a little bit, but, for...the most of the rest of the marathon, it's...pretty much downhill from here. I'm not gonna try to turn this series into ranting about network politics, but it is gonna come up time and time again, and it's gonna be really, really sad as the overall quality of the shows that Nickelodeon did support start to drop. 'Mr. Blik: '''Gordon! We could still blame Waffle... '''Announcer: '''Next on Nickelodeon... ''(Shows clip of the intro for El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera) (End Credits Theme: Catscratch Theme Song) Category:Nick-o-Rama Category:Transcripts